New College Opens in Boston to Combat Loss of Faith in Students

A new college is opening in Boston this fall, with one distinct purpose. Founder Finny Kuruvilla expressed his hope that the new Sattler College will be “a solution to an ongoing epidemic occurring in the United States today: Christian students losing faith after they go off to college,” says The Christian Post.

Kuruvilla, a Harvard educated businessman, began Sattler because, as he says, "[Today's colleges] are producing, despite being raised in the church environment, people who have very little knowledge of the Word of God and who are struggling to articulate even the basics of the faith.”

However, the students’ workload will be on a larger scale. In addition to the course work for their major, all students will be expected to take courses resembling a more classical education.

Students will be required to “become proficient in church history, biblical Hebrew, biblical Greek, and take apologetics classes.” They will also have to participate in a 4-year discipleship program.

These requirements are a part of Kuruvilla’s goal to nurture students in all facets of life and education and to provide them with strong Christian community.

Another of his goals is to keep Sattler’s cost incredibly low. Tuition now stands at $9,000 for the first year, but the first 30 students will receive the first year of tuition at no charge.

Kruvilla himself made this possible, by promising $30 million of his own money to fund the school, says the Boston Globe.

The Globe also notes, “The college is not affiliated with a specific denomination, but according to its website and application to state regulators, its beliefs correspond with a movement of Christianity known as Anabaptist. The school’s founding principles include the ideas that Christians should not serve in war or remarry after divorce.”

These beliefs align with those of the small church where Kuruvilla attends and preaches—Followers of the Way.

The students who end up at Sattler will likely be similarly conservative in values.

“The college is targeting the home-schooled and other Christian students wary of a typical college environment. And indeed, some applicants said they were not interested in college until they heard about this school,” says the Globe.

According the Christian Post, “When asked why Christian students should attend Sattler College rather than established Christian colleges like Wheaton College in Illinois or Liberty University in Virginia, Kuruvilla accused traditional evangelical institutions of moving away from biblical stances on issues such as divorce and sexuality over the last several decades.”

“’That commitment to the authentic, historic faith is something that is a big differentiator between Sattler College and Wheaton and Liberty and those kind of places, which tend to be more traditional evangelical places,’ he said. ‘Even many of the students don't realize how much doctrines are changing in those kinds of places.’”

Kuruvilla hopes that Sattler College will be the college that makes a change and stands firm for truth.